The horizontal holes provide convenience for the construction of the tomb owner's residence in imitation of his lifetime, while the holes drilled through the rock make the tomb safer and more secure.
Unlike the Han Dynasty imperial mausoleums located in Guanzhong, the vassal kings in various vassal areas used more cave-style underground palaces because the terrain was more diverse.
The tombs of Han Dynasty vassal kings located in Pengcheng are just such a typical example.
As far as Chen Wenzhe knows, as far as the Han tombs in Pengcheng have been discovered so far, as many as eight have been excavated.
At the same time, a large number of cultural relics were unearthed, such as jade clothes with gold threads, various jade ornaments, pottery figurines, etc.
So, if you want to see Han Tombs, of course you have to come to Pengcheng.
Judging from the Han tombs that have been excavated in Pengcheng so far, except for the rare case of the tomb of Pengcheng King on Tushan Mountain, which is made of rammed earth, the rest are all caves dug through the mountain.
More than a dozen vassal kings almost occupied the low hills surrounding Pengcheng.
If a place like this, with its dense collection of Han tombs, had happened during the period of war between warlords in the Republic of China, wouldn't the Han tombs here have turned into beauties without clothes?
If Chen Wenzhe lived in that period, if he came to a place like this, would he be able to resist the temptation?
Therefore, an even crueler fact is that many of the tombs of vassal kings in Pengcheng have been stolen.
Tomb robbers in the past dynasties, especially official robbers, have swept away the tombs, leaving very few cultural relics in many royal tombs.
The lack of necessary cultural relics to provide information also makes it impossible to determine the owner of many tombs.
At present, Pengcheng can determine the identity of the tomb owner only in Beidongshan Han Tomb (the second generation Chu King Liu Yingke), Shizishan Han Tomb (the third generation Chu King Liu Wu), Xiaoguishan Han Tomb (the sixth Chu King Liu Wu)
) and the Woniu Mountain Han Tomb (Liu Yu, the twelfth generation Chu king).
The rest, such as the Tuolanshan Han Tomb and the Dongdongshan Han Tomb, can only be concluded to belong to the early and middle to late Western Han Dynasty respectively.
Looking at these excavated Han cemetery palaces, we can clearly see that all the tombs are horizontal cave tombs carved into the mountain.
Based on this, Chen Wenzhe judged that the Little Bear Cauldron must have come from the tomb of a Chu king, and it was definitely not one of the identified tombs of Chu kings that have been excavated.
Also, it definitely did not come from the tomb of the first Chu king.
This is because the tomb of Liu Jiao, the first king of Chu and Yuan Wang, located in the Chuwang Mountain in the western suburbs of Pengcheng, has been discovered but has not yet been excavated. It is a stone pit tomb with a vertical hole.
Liu Jiao died in 178 BC, during the middle period of Emperor Wen.
The second generation Chu king, Yi Wang Liu Yingke, only reigned for four years and died in 174 BC.
The tomb of Yi King Liu Yingke is very different from that of his father.
This is mainly reflected in the fact that the horizontal cave structure has begun to be adopted, which can also be seen in the changes in the imperial tomb structure during the Western Han Dynasty.
Chen Wenzhe speculates that the origin of the Little Bear Cauldron should be from the period of the Fourth and Five Dynasties Chu kings.
Because Liu Sheng, King Jing of Zhongshan, lived during the period of the third and fourth generations of Chu kings. They were people of the same era and period.
Of course, this is just Chen Wenzhe’s speculation and may not be accurate.
At that time, the state of Chu was very powerful and had a lavish burial system. Who knows what luxurious things could be buried with him?
The rest cannot be determined, but there is one thing that Chen Wenzhe is very sure of, that is, if he digs an ancient tomb, he will definitely be able to dig a second one easily.
Because in the Han Dynasty, there was a custom of husband and wife having the same tomb but different acupoints, that is to say, one tomb has two acupuncture points.
This is because the Han Dynasty mausoleum burial system stipulates that husbands and wives share the same tomb in different caves.
This burial system is evident in the tomb of Liu Zhu, King of Chu of the Sixth Dynasty.
The tombs of Liu Zhu and his queen are only separated by a wall, but each has its own coffin chamber, front hall, and tomb passage.
Since the two underground palaces are very close to each other, after the queen was buried, the craftsmen specially dug a small door, called the Humen, to make it easier for the wife to "open the door to find her husband".
How it was possible to accurately dig such a door during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, when there was no advanced laser technology, has become an unsolved mystery of the Xiaoguishan Han Tomb.
Another example is the Tuolanshan Han Tomb. Both underground palaces of the couple have been excavated. However, because the two tombs are far apart, they cannot be connected in between.
The Tuolanshan Han Tomb is similar to the Shishishan Han Tomb, with a neat structure distributed along the central axis. However, this feature does not apply to the Xiaoguishan Han Tomb.
It can also be seen that the tomb system of the Chu king in Pengcheng is constantly changing, and the early symmetrical structure is gradually abandoned.
This is why Chen Wenzhe speculates that Xiaoxiong Ding came from the tomb of the fourth or fifth dynasty kings of Chu. His tomb has not changed much.
At the end, during the process of unearthing the Little Bear Cauldron, Chen Wenzhe made another discovery.
At this time, Chen Wenzhe discovered that the Little Bear Cauldron might not have come from the tomb. It should have been used as a food vessel and enshrined in a temple outside.
I don't know how long it took, but the temple collapsed and was buried in the soil.
Then it was washed away by the rain and came to an entrance of the ancient tomb.
If water can flow here, it is normal for it to be washed here.
I don’t know how much time passed, but a farmer at the foot of the mountain picked up a hoe to dig soil and bake bricks.
It only took a few digs to dig up the Little Bear Cauldron.
When he saw this complete little bear tripod, the farmer became excited.
As a farmer living around Pengcheng, even if you haven't seen much of the world, you still know some things.
After all, as a native of Pengcheng, many legends about the tombs of ancient kings have been circulated since ancient times.
There were even people in their village who had engaged in archaeological activities, so he knew exactly what he encountered today.
Therefore, he was not happy about finding the little bear tripod, but continued to work with the hoe.
He wanted to see if there were any ancient tombs underground here.
Soon, he made another discovery. It could be said that after digging for a while, he found another hole covered by soil.
From the soil, he dug out a dug-out colorful tile.
The farmers continued to dig deeper, and the hole got bigger and bigger!
The scene inside was something he would never forget!
In a large cave, the colorful luster looked particularly dazzling in the sun.
This farmer was also brave. He actually walked into the tomb with the little bear tripod in his arms.
The main thing is that this tomb looks relatively solid, or grand.
Although it looks unremarkable from the outside, once you walk into the underground palace, you will find that the palaces below are all stone chambers, which are carved out of rocks and sealed with rammed earth, making them grand in scale.
The main chamber faces south, with a tomb passage and corridor in front of it. The corridor is blocked with huge stones.
With just a brief glance, Chen Wenzhe knew that this ancient tomb was not simple.
The main tomb chamber of this tomb is made of stone carved into the limestone mountain and is the main part of the tomb.
Even the tomb passage has extremely exquisite craftsmanship.
The cracks in each chamber are inlaid with special stones, the walls are flat, partially polished, smoothed with lime sand, painted with blue-gray paint, and then painted with vermilion. The entire tomb chamber is red and gorgeous.